Racial differences in women's drinking norms and drinking patterns: a national study

This study explored whether norms regarding women's drinking were more or less liberal among African American than among Caucasian women, and whether female-specific drinking norms influence drinking rates and drinking problems among the two groups of women. The study is based on data from a 1984 national survey of subsamples of 1,224 African American and 1,034 Caucasian women. Logistic and multiple regression analyses showed that African Americans reported more conservative drinking norms for women than Caucasians even when controlling for general drinking norms and social characteristics. Other findings were that female-specific drinking norms affect the proportion of women drinkers, usual quantity of alcohol consumption, and symptoms of alcohol dependence. African American and Caucasian women were not found to differ in the effect of female-specific drinking norms on alcohol use or on alcohol-related problems. Future research should explore differences in cultural factors that may affect attitudes towards women's drinking as well as more detailed aspects of the relationship between women's drinking norms and problem drinking.